Note: Most of the pictures in this hands-on were taken by a second Xperia Play unit, so you can use those to judge the quality of the camera.

The saga of the PlayStation phone has been a long one, but we finally have the device in our hands. Some I/O attendees received their own, but now Verizon customers can get the device for themselves. A full review will be available in the coming days, but for now, here are my initial thoughts on the Xperia Play.

The Playstation phone Xperia PLAY may not have quite hit store shelves yet, but it has been up for pre-order for a few days now. Amazon and Wirefly are both stepping up their game in an attempt to beat Verizon's price of $200 with contract, though, and have discounted prices accordingly. Specifically, Amazon has dropped the price for new accounts to just $100, and upgrades are $150. Wirefly has pegged both prices at $150, but hopefully they reflect Amazon's lower price in order to stay competitive.

Like clockwork, the thumb-hungry Xperia Play from Sony Ericsson went up on VZW's site, ready for some early pre-order action. It will set you back $199.99 on a 2-year contract and should ship out May 25th to be in your hands by May 26th, all for free.

Verizon released a press-release today (see below) confirming the availability of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. The device is set to hit VZW shelves on May 26th for $199 with a two-year agreement, but customers can pre-order the device online beginning May 19th. Voice plans start at $39.99 a month and the compulsory unlimited data plan is $29.99.

This is huge. Like, massively huge. Probably the best thing to come out of Google I/O so far this morning huge. I'm talking about the Android Alliance and the solution to a problem that has plagued Android users since the beginning of time (okay, maybe not that long).

The Android Alliance is a special task force dedicated to delivering Android updates quickly and efficiently to all devices for 18 months after they're released.

If tiny smartphones that pack a punch are your thing, then today is your lucky day. Sony Ericsson just officially announced the new Xperia Mini and Xperia Mini Pro, which are both essentially the same phone, except the latter has a full slide out QWERTY. The new line succeeds last year's X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro, but drops the X10 monicker and heavily beefs up the specs. Here are the details:

3 Inch 320x480 display

1GHz Snapdragon processor

320MB internal storage (ouch), SD Card slot with 2GB card included

5MP rear camera with 720p video capture and face detection

Sony BRAVIA engine

Android 2.3

While the pair may not be the hottest thing to hit the streets lately, they definitely have the whole smallest-HD-smartphone thing going for them.

Once again, we find that the selection of Android phones available to those in Canada is increasing both in size and quality. The next two additions to that ever-growing range of devices available in the Great White North are to be the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY and arc. According to a press release from Best Buy Canada, as of April 28th, these two great new handsets will be available on Rogers.

Sony Ericsson Indonesia has quietly announced to the world that they will be putting out the first Android-based Walkman device, the W8. This is by no means a power house, though, with a 600MHz processor, 168MB of RAM, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and a 3" 320x480 screen; clearly, this phone is aimed at the budget market.

This device will run Android 2.1 and the same version of Timescape as the X10 mini, with some tweaks to the Mediascape music interface to give users the Walkman experience.

Thanks to the hardworking devs over at the XDA-Developers forum, the Xperia arc(sic) has been rooted. The pair responsible for the breakthrough, Bin4ry and zdzihu, released the how-to info early this morning (or late last night for you insomniacs). It seems like a pretty simple process: Unlock the bootloader, download Bin4ry's file, and flash it with fastboot.

This currently only applies to the UK version of the device, but it is expected to be ready for phones running the global firmware sometime tonight.